THE FRAGILITY OF TEARS

Author: Queen Nightingale

Rating: M (Language and Light sexual encounter)

Pairing: JPLE

"I love you more than rainbows, baby."
- Ryan Bingham speaking to his wife after winning a 2010 Oscar

He hated girls who cried.

Loathed them, actually – with a passion. When their eyes widened and started to water, when their knees began to tremble, when the moon slowly began to appear behind their gaze – that was when he ran.

(And dumped them.)

James was born into a world of strength and stupidity; where emotions were laughed at and forgotten. Anyone who could possibly break his exterior, he shattered before they could take a stab at him.

His emotional unavailability, in fact, was infamous.

James Potter was the type of boy who could manage to charm his way into a girl's knickers in five seconds flat, and then the next day; wham, bang, pop. Out they went of his life as fast as they came.

It probably had to do a bit with his reputation, and with his friends. Sirius Black, obviously, was not exactly known for being anything but a player; Remus Lupin, although seeming somewhat intelligent, had gotten with so many girls he lost count in fifth year; and Peter idolized them for their golden conquests.

James was proudly, and satisfactorily, emotionally unavailable.

He ate girls like Popsicles; licked them up, sucked up all their flavours, orange, grape, or the ever-cherished cherry, and then threw the stick away. Maybe he broke it on his knees before tossing it haphazardly into the garbage can.

But really, who could blame him?

James was unfortunately graced with excellent genes (being one of the beautiful boys that all the girls not-so-secretly wanted) and, to top it off, he was even somewhat good at balancing himself on a broom and throwing balls into hoops.

At Hogwarts, that propelled him to a near Godlike status.

Lily, on the other hand, craved sensitivity in a boy.

She lusted with her roommates after artists, and writers, and poets, with their long fingers and exotic features. She wanted to feel the way that they did, and so she was captured by actors and musicians, anything to do with escapism.

Of course she had a bit of a crush on Remus, everyone knows that now, but he wasn't even the one for her (what with the ever-present whispers of 'Oh, wouldn't Sirius and Remus and Marlene be the sexiest threesome ever?'). No, Lily Evans was staunchly certain that her future husband would be a stunning lover of explosive proportions, with a tendency to write romantic ballads or take her on moonlight walks or trace constellations on her skin.

And yes, she admitted to herself, staring around at the farting, unclean and generally rude population of boys that Hogwarts deemed 'magical', it would be difficult trying to find such a man, but such a man she would find.

Because when you are a girl of that fiery of a nature, of that red and scarlet and burgundy and CRIMSON of a character, you have a tendency of falling for a man draped in the night sky, with the Milky Way pouring out of his mouth and rose petals covering his hands.

And so she threw herself into her passions of writing and daydreaming about a beautiful man dripping diamonds and playing the Mexican guitar and being tall and dark and mysterious.

Unfortunately (isn't it funny how life works out?) she got Potter instead.

"Okay, Lily, it's your turn!"

Alice's cheerful voice rang out from the Gryffindor girls' dormitory, where a group of five girls were sitting in a circle on the ground, giggling, smirking and grinning, as they painted each other's nails with their wands and preened in front of mirrors, magically changing their appearances.

"Why?," Lily asked, rolling her eyes from where she was charming Emmeline's fingernails a shocking shade of blue, "They're all ugly anyways."

"Oh come on Lily," Dorcas retorted, laughing as Marlene held a mirror in front of her, using her wand to turn her hair green, "You must think at least one of them's – OI! MCKINNON! I said BLONDE, not bloody green!"

Lily snorted at Marlene, who was buckled over with laughter at Dorcas' new hair colour.

"You've got to be kidding me, they're all ugly."

"Oh come on, Lily," Emmeline said, looking up at Lily from where she was blowing on her newly painted nails, "They're definitely not ugly. Jerks, yes, but not ALL ugly."

"Alright," Lily said, leaning back, "You go then, Emmeline. Which boy in our year is attractive?"

"Oh, let her pick from the upper years too," Alice moaned, "That eliminates so many boys."

"Fine," Lily said, rolling her eyes again and laughing a bit, "The upper years too."

"Oh Merlin, uhm, let me think," Emmeline said, tossing her head of blonde hair and biting her lip, "Oh, DEFINITELY Fabian and Gideon Prewitt."

"Yes," Marlene piped in from across the circle, Dorcas glaring angrily at her as she changed her hair-colour back to normal, "Those two are so handsome it should be illegal. Redheaded males that are good-looking? Unfair to the general population, my gosh."

"Heyy," Lily retorted, "Don't hate the gingers."

"Oh, and obviously the Marauders, they're all so attractive it's sinful, except for Peter, who's just a bit regular."

"Regular?" Alice bit back a laugh, "You're so mean!"

"Oh don't deny it," Emmeline replied, sighing boredly and brushing her hair, "You know it's true."

"Well I think Frank's good-looking," Alice said dreamily, looking across the circle at nothing.

"Snap out of it, I swear that boy's got you under a spell!" Marlene said, snapping her fingers in front of Alice's face, making the group laugh.

"Lily, come on!" Dorcas whined, prodding her friend in the stomach and making Lily bat her away and laugh, "We can even narrow it down for you if you're too much of a wimp to say who's the hottest in the entire grade."

"Yeah," Alice piped back in, "Who's the most attractive Marauder?"

The group of girls fell silent, all of them staring at the pensive redhead.

"Well, uhh, I don't know, they're all decent I guess."

"Oh come on Lily!"

"Yeah, please? We all told you!"

"Okay," Lily retorted, a wry grin on her face, "Because telling me what I already knew is really exciting. Marlene wants to shag Sirius, and probably is, for all we know - " at this, the girls all gasped and turned to Marlene, tell-tale pink spreading up the other girl's cheekbones " – Alice adores Frank, Emmeline likes a Ravenclaw and Dorcas is in love with anything and everything that moves."

"I am not!"

"Dorcas, it is a BIT true."

"Shut up, Alice."

"Anyways," Lily continued, ignoring her friends' bickering, "Let me think. Out of those four miscreants?"

The girls nodded.

"UGH, but they're all such sleazeballs!" Lily said, shuddering.

"Come ON, Lily!"

"Fine. Oh well, I guess I'd pick Potter. JUST because he's somewhat – shudder – good looking. But his personality is crap."

He stared at the back of her neck, so pale it looked swathed in milkworms, or silkworms, or glow-worms, or whatever those silly muggles called the goddamn bugs.

"What is the incantation for the light spell, Mr. Potter?"

He smirked up at McGonagall, who was staring irritatedly at his evident lack of attention, waiting for his answer. Sirius saved him again, calling out from one desk over: "What is the incantation of the password to your room, Minnie, if you give it to me then maybe I'll visit you tonight!"

Sirius got two detentions, but James turned his head back towards her neck and stared dreamily at it.

He spent Herbology wrestling with a venomous tentacula, his cheeks covered in splotches of brown, and was miserable from Frank's evident humour at the situation. Glowering at the other boy, whose natural affinity for Herbology made him a stuck-up snob in the class, he shoved him as Frank started clutching the table from his giggles, each laugh ricocheting out of his chest. He caught Lily's eye across the room, from where she was neatly collecting pus out of some random plant (as if he paid attention), and she glared at him, evidently concluding that his shove meant that he was bullying the popular blond-haired ass currently roaring with laughter on the floor. In his anger, he glared back at her, and was rewarded with a huff and a wave of red hair turning away from him.

He swore under his breath, and kicked Frank, who just started to laugh harder.

In Charms, the seating arrangement was set up as to separate him and Sirius (Flitwick claimed it was for inter-house bonding, but everyone knew the truth, as only he and Sirius were moved), so he sat right next to her, close enough to watch her fingernails daintily grip her peacock-feathered quill.

"Stop it, James," Lily muttered under her breath, making him jump and turn to look at her eyes, downcast and covered in thick red lashes.

"What?" he asked uncouthly, feeling awkward beside her small stature.

"You're STARING at me, Potter, and I can't deal with it!" Lily said, turning to glare at him, "You were glaring at me in Herbology and Transfiguration, but can you please settle your rampant hormones for this one class?!"

"Rampant hormones?!" James retorted, agast, staring at the reddened girl sitting beside him.

"Yes," Lily replied, taking a deep breath and then turning her attention back to the page in front of her, "You may think that you can shag all the girls in the grade and that may be true, but you'll never get in my pants."

"Your pants?" James replied, still somewhat flabbergasted.

"Yes, my pants," Lily continued, nonchalantly flipping the page of her notes.

"Why do you think that I want to get into your pants?!!!"

At the sound of James' raised voice, Flitwick paused a bit in his lecture, turning to glare angrily at James, before resuming talking again.

"Why do you think that I want to get into your pants?" James said again, whispering into Lily's ear.

"Every single Gryffindor girl knows your moves by now," Lily replied, licking her thumb daintily and then flipping the page of her notes, "Step One. You hear by some random rumour that a girl likes you."

James paused, and watched the girl beside him, not even bothering to pay attention to Flitwick.

"Well, what makes you think I heard that about you?"

"I know you did," Lily emphasized, lifting her eyes to meet his, "Since Dorcas was very loudly proclaiming last night in the common room that I thought you were the most attractive Marauder."

"Alright," James said, frowning a bit, "Maybe I did hear that. So what?"

"Step two: you convince yourself you like them."

"Like who?"

"The girl, you ditwad!" Lily replied irritatedly, then calmed down and returned to her notes.

"Oh. Well what if I do like you, Evans?"

"Then you're going to need to suck it up, big boy, because I don't like you back." Lily retorted, putting her quill down and meeting eye contact with him.

"Why? You don't even know me!"

"Oh, but I do know you. I know your reputation, your friends, and the way you treat women."

"I treat women FINE, Evans."

"If your definition of fine means a good make-out session and then dumping them the next day, then YOU WOULD BE CORRECT."

"What is your PROBLEM?"

"My problem is that YOU'RE A JERK."

"YOU DON'T EVEN FUCKING KNOW ME!"

"I know you ENOUGH, POTTER. Stop HITTING ON ME."

"I WASN'T BLOODY HITTING ON YOU! I WOULDN'T WANT TO!"

"GOOD!"

"GOOD!"

The two sat angrily in silence, as they slowly realized that the classroom had fallen quiet. Flitwick's mouth had dropped at the front of class, and everyone had turned to stare at them, wide-eyed.

Sirius mouthed across the room at James: Good one, mate.

"Oh, shut up BLACK," Lily hissed, folding her arms over her chest protectively and sinking into her seat.

As the class slowly began to pick up pace again, James leaned over towards Lily, draping his arm casually around her shoulders, ignoring her batting hands, and whispering in her ear:

"What's the next step?"

"Oh, I don't know, Potter," Lily replied, shoving his arm off of her and glaring furiously at him, "You do whatever you do with all the girls you've done."

James blinked a couple of times at her, and then smirked dangerously.

"Step Three, little Miss Lily Evans," James said quietly, turning back to his books and feeling her hot gaze on him, "Step three: I get the girl."

It didn't happen the way she wanted it to. There were no moonlight walks or boys wrapping constellations around her shoulders.

Class, unfortunately, was something James had attended, but had never really applied to real life.

In his world of broom closets and midnight escapades, there was no room for midnight serenades or romance. In her world of high literature and fictional boys made of words and sentences, there was no need for distasteful encounters and sexualized embraces; when it was necessary, she could simply close the book or flip to the next page.

But, as is the case with the best of love stories, opposites attract.

And so they did, like the poles of a magnet – they were destined to. By what cruel God, no-one was ever quite certain, but when they did finally realize the other one existed, it was very difficult to pull away and forget them again.

And oh Merlin, did they clash. They fought and punched and hit and slapped, so much so that everyone thought their relationship was pure hatred and had no room for sexual tension.

But oh Merlin, there was sexual tension.

Lots, and lots of it.

"WHAT THE EFFING HELL, IS YOUR GODDAMN PROBLEM, POTTER?!"

The entire Gryffindor common room froze at the sight of an enraged Lily Potter marching down the steps to the girls' dormitories, headed straight towards a certain tousled-hair glasses-wearing (extremely attractive) boy.

"What?!" James asked, irritatedly turning around from his chess game with Remus, "What is it now, Lily?!"

"I asked you POLITELY," Lily retorted, gritting her teeth and stepping up straight into his face, "To complete ONE. TINY. PARAGRAPH. for our Charms homework."

"So?"

"IT IS DUE TOMORROW, JAMES, AND YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING!"

"So?"

"I walk upstairs to my room," Lily ranted, starting to pace back and forth in front of him, "AND I SEE THIS PIECE OF PAPER," she shoved the parchment in front of James' face, "LYING ON MY DESK, STILL UNCOMPLETED! NOW EXPLAIN THIS TO ME, POTTER?!"

"I don't see what the big deal is, Lily, I'll get it done."

"WHEN?!" Lily asked loudly, suddenly sweeping her hand out and shoving all of the chess pieces off of the table, "AFTER I FINISH OUR WORK AGAIN?!"

"Oh poopers," Remus said quietly, sadly looking down at their ruined chess match.

"I was GOING to get it done, Lily."

"WHEN, EXACTLY, WERE YOU GOING TO DO IT? HOW WERE YOU GOING TO GET IT DONE WHEN YOU FORGOT TO TAKE IT FROM ME IN CLASS?"

"That was HALF YOUR FAULT, EVANS, FOR NOT GIVING IT TO ME!"

"As a responsible guy, YOU SHOULD HAVE FIGURED IT OUT ON YOUR OWN!" Lily screamed at him, blatantly ignoring all pretenses of politeness and shoving the paper into his hands, "STOP MAKING ME DO ALL THE WORK!"

With that, she turned around in a huff and daintily stomped her way back up the steps.

"OH, SUCK IT EVANS!" James roared after her as she ignored him, "NO ONE CARES ANYWAYS."

"YOU CERTAINLY WANTED TO SUCK IT A WEEK AGO!" Lily's voice screamed down from the dormitories, followed by a slamming door.

The Commons room was left in a flabbergasted silence, everyone staring at the reddened James.

"Re-match?" Remus weakly said, pointing to the scattered pieces.

James stretched, and then grinned, blatantly scrunching the parchment that Lily had given him and tossing it under his chair.

"Sure."

"I can't deal with you ANYMORE," Lily said, turning to glare at James in Charms class, trying to keep her voice low, "This has got to stop."

"What is it now, Lilykins, that is bothering you?" James said, not bothering to feign interest as he magically folded a plane and flew it across the room at Sirius, making it hit his head.

"Can you at least pretend to pay attention?" Lily replied, gritting her teeth.

"Now why would I do that, Lilykins, when I've got you to copy notes from?"

"You're not copying my notes."

"How about this, Evans," James replied, turning and suddenly focusing his gaze on her, making Lily shrink subconsciously into her chair, "If you give me your notes, I'll let you kiss me. But just once."

Lily's eyes dropped to James' red lips just for a second, before flashing angrily back to his eyes.

"You pervert!" she whispered angrily, kicking him under the table and making James visibly wince, "As if I would ever want to kiss you, you ponce!"

A pause settled over the two of them as James almost deliriously swept his gaze over her face.

"Your eyes certainly wanted to kiss me a couple of moments ago."

The next day, in Herbology class, Lily happened to glance across the room while picking fruit off of the sample plant that she was given and met eye contact with James, who was doing the same task.

A smirk painting itself on his face, he picked the fruit off of his plant, and suddenly hurled it across the class at her when Professor Sprout's back was turned.

It hit her shoulder, and Lily gaped at him, her mouth imitating that of a freshwater fish.

As soon as Professor Sprout turned away again, Lily yanked Marlene's basket of fruit away from her ("Lily, come on, I've worked on that all class long!") and pelted James straight in the back with a fruit, causing him to yelp and turn around.

With Frank successfully distracting Professor Sprout, he ran around to where Lily was standing, making her run and squeal away from him, and began whipping fruits at her.

"JAMES, WHAT THE EFF!?" Lily hollered, ducking behind a table and fully screaming once Professor Sprout was led by Frank out of the greenhouse to investigate a peculiar plant growing outside the Transfiguration classroom.

The class turned and watched, and slowly started to join in on James' evident throwing pleasure, with Sirius starting it off by hurling one over at Marlene who giggled and ducked.

Sooner or later, the entire greenhouse was filled with flying fruit and screaming teenagers, everyone running under (and sometimes, on top of) tables in order to get away from the flying fruit. In one corner, Marlene and Sirius had started making out, safely hidden in an alcove, Dorcas and Emmeline were pelting Remus and Peter, and James and Lily at the opposite end of the greenhouse were engaged in a full-on fight.

"James. POTTER." Lily shrieked angrily, ducking to cover herself with her hands as another fruit was hurled at her, "Stop it!"

"Not until you say you love me!" James childishly sing-songed, pelting another fruit at Lily, who giggled and ducked.

"No!" Lily yelled back, a smile erupting on her face despite the fact that she was being hit with fruit.

"Say it!"

"No!"

Unfortunately, at that exact moment, James wound-up a bit too hard and launched a fruit straight at Lily's face, hitting her cheekbone and causing her eyes to water. Her head, from the impact of the fruit, fell back and hit the stone wall, and with that her whole body started to sink to the ground.

"Oh no, Lily, I'm sorry!" James said, sprinting over to where she was, quickly grabbing her and setting her back on her feet, "I didn't mean to do that, really!"

"James, I'm okay, I'm okay!" Lily replied, laughing a bit, a couple of tears accidentally spilling out of her wide eyes and dripping down her cheeks, James' hands still firmly on her shoulders, helping her balance, "I'm fine!"

"I'm so sorry!" James said again, spazzing a bit in his fear that he hit a girl, "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine!" Lily said, laughing harder into his arms as he reached over and enveloped her into a giant hug, "But you are a right bastard, you know!"

"But a sexy bastard, at that!" James replied, winking down at her and letting her go, Lily stumbling a bit from the sudden loss of his body.

A fruit suddenly came flying at James' head, hitting Lily's arm, and he whisked around and spotted Sirius clutching a ton of fruit in his arms and getting ready to pelt him with some more.

"Oi! Black! You're going to pay for that! Nobody touches MY girl except for me!"

Lily inhaled sharply.

When opposites meet, as the world is ought to know, they have a tendency of sticking together or at least trying to meld their bodies together. Maybe it's something in their souls, maybe one has a cloud of protons around them while the other has electrons – either way, nothing can seemingly satisfy opposites except for touch.

Beautiful, delirious, human contact – seductive gazes and licked lips, sighs, moans, and heaving breaths.

Tortured gazes meet across classrooms, where words are thrown like arrows; but really, the anger is just at the fact that skin isn't colliding with skin, just thoughts with thoughts.

He lusted after her every Transfiguration classroom, could barely drag his eyes away from her white skin and fair complexion, her pale pink pout and waves, oh God, waves of red hair. Something about Lily captured him, entwined his soul with hers and if she just tugged a bit more, he wouldn't be able to stop moving towards her.

It got to the point where self-control rapidly diminished. She could barely stop biting her lip and ravaging him with her eyes during Charms class, sneakily catching memories of him out of the corner of her gaze.

But, being teenagers, neither knew what do with themselves, so they resorted to words. He toyed with her neat, clean idea of 'Happy Ever After'; she dirtied him with her purified sexuality.

During any given argument, he would end it with a sexual innuendo, and she would blush, blush, and blush, to the point that he could barely take not sweeping his mouth against her reddened cheeks.

The fragility of her tears no longer mattered to him, and he forgot to be cautious around her shattered complexity, her razor-sharp tongue and her wand. He decided to play with her, toy her around; but Lily was not another girl to be toyed with.

Because this time, when he shattered her, purposefully, just like a move in a carefully planned out chess game, she took her broken pieces and stabbed them through his heart, leaving shards of sunbeams and rainbows.

And accidentally, James found himself to be all too emotionally available.

"Did you hear, Lily? Potter's got a girl!"

"What?" Lily asked, turning with shock towards Dorcas, who was gleefully making her way down the Gryffindor table towards where she was sitting with her girls, "Are you serious?" She felt a tiny twinge go off inside of her, but pushed it down.

"I'm completely serious," Dorcas said, quickly sliding into the seat beside Lily and leaning towards her, "Haven't you heard?"

"Well there were rumours, Dorcas, but no-one believed them," Alice muttered, as the girls edged closer. She threw a quick glance at Lily, who was seemingly sitting in shock, "I mean, who would?"

"Who is it?" Lily asked fiercely, looking around at the group of girls who all suddenly looked at their plates, "You all knew he liked someone?"

"Well, not so much liked someone, Lily," Marlene drawled in her soft voice, tracing the edge of her plate with her fingers, her dark hair flung back over her shoulder, "But was more so attracted to their breasts."

Lily visibly reddened, and the group of girls edged back a bit from her, except for Marlene, who was casually examining her nails.

"Who. Is. It?" Lily asked furiously, turning to Dorcas, who froze.

"She's a whore, if that's any consolation," Emmeline piped in, then shrank back from Lily's angry glare.

"None of you told me that he liked someone?" Lily said, furiously, "And that egotistical bastard!"

"I don't get it," Dorcas muttered quietly to Marlene, "Why is he egotistical?"

"No-one is quite certain, dear," Marlene drawled back.

"Well, tell me!" Lily exclaimed, turning to Alice, who cast her eyes down, "Why aren't you telling me who this is!"

"No need to worry, Lily," Emmeline said, gulping, "They've just come in now."

Lily's eyes flipped up to the entrance to the Great Hall, where James was making his way down to his seat, high-fiving some guys as he walked down, casually strolling. Beside him was a tall, sultry brunette, whose Hogwarts' uniform was dangerously high on her legs and dangerously low on her abundant top.

"Vanessa Lockhart?!" Lily hissed, punching Dorcas' shoulder, turning back to her friends, "LOCKHART?! The RAVENCLAW?!"

Marlene casually nodded, arching her eyebrow in surprise, "Don't look now," she said quietly, "But they're headed over here."

James, from where he was standing, had seemingly spotted Lily's red-hair, and, plastering a smirk to his face, was sauntering over to where she was sitting, Vanessa Lockhart leisurely pacing beside him, her arms possessively wrapped around his torso. Sirius Black, watching where his friend was headed, suddenly jumped up from his spot and followed them over to Lily.

"Oh Merlin," Lily said, her eyes narrowed and her teeth clenched, her eyes making firm eye-contact with her empty plate, "Make him go away, Marlene, make him go away!"

"She has to know that he'll dump her tomorrow," Alice said, thoughtfully chewing on some bread and watching the approaching couple, "I mean really, she's about the equivalent of a walking sexually transmitted disease."

At that moment, James and Vanessa reached across the table from Lily, right behind Marlene, and James stopped, grinning at Lily, who was blatantly ignoring him.

"Hello, Lily," Vanessa was the first to speak, a cruel smile painting itself on her face as she slowly dragged her gaze condescendingly up Lily's body, "How are you doing?"

An awkward silence fell on the Gryffindor table as Lily slowly lifted her face up to meet Vanessa's gaze. At the Professor's head table, Dumbledore eagerly turned to watch one of his favourite students, and nudged McGonagall, making her spill her drink on her plate.

"Albus!" McGonagall declared affrontedly, "What was that for?"

"Shush, Minerva," Dumbledore said, happily clapping his hands, "Look at our Gryffindors!"

"Oh Merlin," McGonagall flatly said, turning her gaze on Lily Evans, "What now?!"

"I'm sorry," Lily said loudly, slowly standing up with a creak, "Do I know you?"

Sirius quickly reached the table, panting a bit.

"Well, hello folks," he said quickly, his eyes darting between Lily and James, who looked enraged with one another, "How is everyone doing?"

"This is Vanessa, Lily," James said, ignoring Sirius and smirking at Lily, whose face paled and turned white, "I'm dating her."

"Oh, so it is true, then!" Lily said loudly, pretending to squeal and clap her hands together, "You are easier than a wad of clay!"

Vanessa's mouth dropped, while James started to scowl at Lily, shooting daggers at her through his eyes.

"Clay?" he said, spitting the words out across the table at her, "CLAY? That's the best you could come up with?"

"You're the one sleeping with the whore," Lily spat back at him, Sirius' eyes darting back and forth between the two, "I really don't think you should be judgemental right now."

"I haven't slept with him!" Vanessa said, outraged, staring at the two of them.

"Yet," Lily said, her eyebrow shooting up, "You see Vanessa, you are just one of James' little girls that he likes to play with."

"Lily," James said, his voice low and thundering, the entirety of the Gryffindor table falling silent, the rest of the Houses starting to turn around and point at the two of them.

"Oh no, James," Lily retorted, fakely widening her eyes as she moved around the table, turning around the corner to stand in front of him, "I think she should hear this, maybe all the Gryffindor girls should hear this."

"Hear what?!"

"Step ONE," Lily said, her eyes never faltering from James, "He hears from someone that you like him."

Vanessa's eyes flashed nervously to James, but he didn't look at her, and just stared at Lily, frozen to the ground.

"Well, uh, maybe, yeah, he did?" Vanessa said, stuttering, looking awkwardly around at the group of Gryffindors.

"Step TWO. He convinces himself that he likes you."

"Oh no," Vanessa said, shaking her head, grabbing James' hand and enclasping her fingers with it, "James actually likes me."

James slowly unfurled his hand from hers, still staring at Lily, and Vanessa's eyes seemingly crumbled.

"Step THREE," Lily continued, unflinchingly glaring at James, "He shags you."

The Gryffindor table let out a simultaneous gasp, and Vanessa inhaled sharply, turning to stare at James.

"Was this just a game to you, James?" Vanessa asked angrily, punching him in his shoulder, "Can you look at me? LOOK at me!"

James just stood there, slowly turning redder and redder, glaring at Lily.

"You asshole!" Vanessa shrieked, throwing her hands up and flouncing away from the group.

"Step FOUR," Lily continued, a tell-tale shake creeping into her voice, "He tells you he loves you."

"And what," James dangerously asked, speaking for the first time, his hands clenched into fists, "What, pray tell, EVANS, is the next step?"

"Step FIVE. He dumps you."

James' hands began to shake furiously, and Sirius stepped up behind him in case he needed to be restrained.

"Let me tell you something. You think you know everything about me, don't you?!" James said, stealthily approaching Lily just as he might a prey, her eyes unflinchingly connected to his, "You think you know my steps, my tactics, everything, don't you?!"

Lily didn't reply, but merely watched him, her eyes growing wider as he came closer.

When he made to move one step closer, Sirius jumped on him, yanking him back with his arms, James' clearly straining against his pull, his veins popping out of his arms.

"YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT ME, EVANS," he roared, yanking against Sirius' pull like a wild animal, "AND DON'T YOU EVER. FUCKING. THINK. OTHERWISE."

Lily let out a small, scared sniffle, and a tear rolled down her face.

"PADFOOT!" James roared, turning around and shoving Sirius off of him, the other tall boy stumbling back, "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM, I WOULD NEVER HURT A GIRL!" Sirius muttered a 'sorry' as James swerved back around to face Lily, the entire Great Hall silent, even the Slytherins watching.

"But don't you EVER, EVER," James screamed at Lily, "FUCK UP ANOTHER ONE OF MY RELATIONSHIPS AGAIN, YOU COLD-HEARTED B-B-bi…" His voice trailed off and he stared angrily at Lily, who furiously swiped away the tears that were flowing out of her wide eyes, hiccupping every once in a while.

And with that, he stormed out of the Great Hall, opening and closing the doors with a bang.

Lily stood there, broken just a bit, like a porcelain doll missing an arm, or a leg, or a heart, as conversation started to resume around her, people still staring at her, Marlene reaching up to cup her cheek.

"Now, Lily," Marlene said softly, ignoring the stares and whispers around her, "You go after him."

And with that, Lily sprinted out of the room, shedding the part of herself that she left standing there, lost, in the Great Hall, running, and running, and running towards the boy who she had just ruined with her own broken heart.

"JAMES!!!" she desperately yelled once she was out of the Great Hall, turning to run down another hallway, chasing after the retreating figure at the end of the hall.

The tall figure turned around, and Lily kept sprinting towards him, powering herself as fast as she possibly could, wiping away the tears on her cheeks as she ran towards him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!!" she yelled, her eyes crinkling up as she kept on sobbing, the tears running down her cheeks, "I didn't mean it, please, I'm sorry!"

She ran up towards him, until she was standing in front of this breathing statue of a boy. His eyes were red behind his glasses, and his hair looked more tornado-swept than wind-swept.

"I didn't mean it, James," she said, more quietly, enunciating every word, hiccupping every once in a while, her lips pursed from her crying, "Please, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"You just humiliated me in front of the entire school," James said angrily, clutching his hair in his hand and turning away from her, bending over and heaving, "Why? Why would you do that?!"

"Why would you get with Vanessa LOCKHART?!" Lily asked, tears running down her face as she moved around him, trying to get his eye-contact back, "Why would you do that?!"

"Why would you care?!" James spat at her, making Lily cry a bit harder.

"I don't know but you did it on purpose!"

"Did EXACTLY WHAT, LILY, ON PURPOSE?!"

Lily stopped talking, just stood there in front of him and breathed heavily, wiping away the remnants of her tears.

"Oh, wait, let me remember," James said spitefully, turning towards her, "You think I want you! Let's check off steps one and two, then, shall we?"

"STOP IT!" Lily shrieked at him, slapping his face and causing James to recoil backwards, "STOP IT!"

James stood in front of her, stunned, in the empty hallway, his hand clutched to his cheek.

"I don't want to hear about your stupid steps anymore," Lily said quietly, nursing her throbbing hand.

"Oh really? And why would that be," James asked, furiously, one of his cheeks tinged darker than the other, "Maybe you should call them your OWN steps since you made them up!"

"I DIDN'T MAKE THEM UP!" Lily yelled at him, tears starting to course down her face again.

"YES YOU DID!"

"YOU USE THEM YOU BASTARD!"

"I DO NOT USE THEM! YOU THINK I DO BUT I DON'T!" James roared back into Lily's face, making her noisily inhale.

The two of them stood in silence for a couple seconds.

"Oh, fuck it."

Suddenly he pushed her up against the wall and she felt his lips connect to hers, so she gasped and let his tongue enter her mouth and she moaned and arched against his chest and he groaned deep in his throat and drew his hands through her hair because she was fire fire fire and he wanted to coat himself with it.

Not thinking, she entwined one arm around his neck and pulled him even closer because he was too far away and she inwardly screamed MORE SKIN and another hand ruffled through his hair and his chest was strong and wide and she pressed herself to him and ground her body against his and closer and pressed her lips harder and closer and harder against him until they were fully and truly ravaging each other against the wall in the empty hallway.

A couple moments later they separated, Lily pushing him off and heaving air into her lungs, her head spinning with delicious butterflies and the heady feeling of a boy's lips on her own.

She lifted her head and met his eyes, and she watched as suddenly they began to twinkle and James grinned at her.

"Step three: check."

The resounding sound of her slap echoed down the hallway, and her feet made loud noises as she walked away from him, ignoring his curses.

"GODDAMIT LILY, IT WAS A JOKE!!!"